Which U.S. Supreme Court case established the right to privacy in marital matters?

Which U.S. Supreme Court case established the right to privacy in marital matters? Griswold v. Connecticut did so in 1965.

The case challenged a Connecticut law that prohibited married couples from using contraceptives. Estelle Griswold, executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, and physician C. Lee Buxton opened a birth-control clinic in New Haven in 1961. They were arrested under the state law, creating the legal challenge that reached the Supreme Court.

By a 7–2 vote on June 7, 1965, the Court struck down the statute. Justice William O. Douglas wrote that several constitutional protections created “penumbras” or zones of privacy, within which the marital relationship was protected from government intrusion. The Constitution does not expressly use the phrase “right to privacy,” which is why the decision’s reasoning is often discussed separately from its holding.

Griswold concerned contraception for married couples, not abortion. Eisenstadt v. Baird later extended contraceptive privacy protection to unmarried people, while Roe v. Wade applied privacy reasoning to abortion before being overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022.